Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2012
Super massive black holes lie quietly until a star wanders close enough to get ripped apart by their gravitational force. This black hole is caught red-handed in the action. This computer-simulated image shows gas from a tidally shredded star falling into a black hole. Some of the gas also is being ejected at high speeds into space.
Astronomers observed a flare in ultraviolet and optical light from the gas falling into the black hole and glowing helium from the star's helium-rich gas expelled from the system.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHU/STScI/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
These above images, taken with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii, show a brightening inside a galaxy caused by a flare from its nucleus. The arrow in each image points to the galaxy. The flare is a signature of the galaxy's central black hole shredding a star that wandered too close.
Source: NASA
Astronomers observed a flare in ultraviolet and optical light from the gas falling into the black hole and glowing helium from the star's helium-rich gas expelled from the system.
These above images, taken with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii, show a brightening inside a galaxy caused by a flare from its nucleus. The arrow in each image points to the galaxy. The flare is a signature of the galaxy's central black hole shredding a star that wandered too close.
Source: NASA